49ers, Wildcat: Not a Good Mix

It’s going to be a great week in the 49ers’ camp, full of confidence and energy in an atmosphere so dramatically changed by Mike Singletary and his staff. I just wonder if any Wildcat plays will sneak into the picture.

There wasn’t a whit of mention in the local papers, but Fox announcers Thom Brennaman and (ex-coach) Brian Billick jumped all over the 49ers, and rightfully so, for two ridiculous Wildcat plays in yesterday’s game. Michael Spurlock took the snap on both plays, each of which was an outright disaster that disrupted the flow and seemed utterly incomprehensible from the Singletary-Jimmy Raye brain trust.

Brennaman took leave from his objective stance to criticize the plays, and Billick could hardly contain his disdain for Wildcat plays anywhere. “It simply doesn’t work,” said Billick, and you can’t put it much better than that.

Brennaman made another good point, though: You can no longer say the 49er offense is predictable. “You gotta give ’em that,” Billick agreed. And as one reader noted this morning, “I think they just ran those plays to force other teams to spend (waste) time preparing for it.”

It’s a time-honored practice to “freeze” the opposing kicker. Nothing wrong with that. But you don’t wait until “the last millisecond,” as Collinsworth pointed out on the field-goal attempt by the Giants’ Lawrence Tynes, to call time out. Once the snap is off and the ball has been kicked, sorry, that play has to count. Just another chump move by Phillips, who shouldn’t have that job in the first place.

Good for Tynes, making fools out of Phillips and Jerry Jones, who has turned his new stadium into a TV show (any time a big scoreboard dominates the scene, you’ve got a joke of a facility). I like it when the Cowboys are good; I really do. Same for Notre Dame. I’m not fans of the teams, it’s just a more interesting season when they’re in the postseason mix. But not when they’re run by clowns.

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Tim Lincecum has pitched too many hot-weather gems to say he can’t pitch in the boiling heat. There’s no question, though, that for a kid from the great Northwest, chillier temperatures are his ideal — and this will work in the Giants’ favor.

If it ever reaches the point where Lincecum is eligible to test the free-agent market, it’s hard to imagine him re-locating in the steaming-hot Midwest or humidity-tortured East. He didn’t seem to be too wild about L.A., either, as he wilted in yesterday’s late-summer heat.

If you really enjoy cooler weather, there’s really only one place you can go if you’ve eliminated San Francisco. That’s Seattle, conveniently close to home for Lincecum but also the American League, a much tougher place to pitch. Add the fact that Lincecum seems to enjoy the Giants, the organization, the ballpark and the city, and it’s a comforting thought.

You’ll notice I didn’t include Oakland. The A’s don’t seem to include Oakland, as they gaze into the South Bay distance, so there’s no reason for anyone else to think that way.